The Story Behind the Brazil Protest’s Shocking Pepper-Spray Photo [Updated]

Share

One of the more startling photos from the ongoing protests in Brazil is the above image of a woman being bombarded in the face by pepper spray at close range, which has goneviral today. But the story behind the photo makes the scene even more shocking. The photographer, Victor Caivano, tells Daily Intelligencer that the woman, who appeared to be a “normal, middle-class university student,” was standing completely alone at around 11:20 p.m. yesterday on a “deserted corner” after the police had cleared the area. “The protest was over, riots included,” Caivanosays.

Three riot officers approached the woman and told her to leave. When she objected — the woman either questioned the order or insisted that she wasn’t doing anything wrong, Caivano recalls — she was pepper-sprayed. “This policeman just didn’t think twice,” Caivanosays.

The woman stumbled backward, “screaming and cursing.” She was detained and taken to a police van. Caivano says local reporters are now trying to track herdown.

Update: A more widely-cropped version of the same photo shows just how desolate the area was when the woman waspepper-sprayed: